Anger

“I’m gonna pick him up, and I’m gonna give him one hundred dollars and tell him to get the hell out of our lives and stay out of our lives,” Jim told Joy.

Jim stormed out to the car, so angry the he was throbbing with the pain of it. But as he slid into the driver’s seat, the anger entirely disappeared. He had taken no deliberate action to calm himself. He had said no prayers, nor had he tried to bring his anger under control. If anything, he had fanned his rage. But the anger was gone, and in its place was compassion. Jim knew immediately that God had changed him. He picked up Michael and brought him home.

Jim would have loved to have been able to say that Michael never ran away again. But he did, and Jim and Joy took him back. But Jim believed that the moment his anger disappeared was the moment the healing began. Michael was eventually diagnosed with a treatable disorder. He married and had two children. He was an active member of the Unitarian Church and raised his children with a sense of the importance of spirituality in one’s life. Jim was proud of him. The thought of what would have happened had he followed through on his anger that day was both a dark reminder and a sign of hope.

— Englert, The Collar